The Golden Key is a special key in Borderlands 2 that unlocks a golden chest which gives you a very powerful and rare item(s). Golden keys can be obtained by pre-ordering Borderlands 2, registering for a SHiFT account in Borderlands 2, or redeeming SHiFT codes (which are released randomly).

November 4, 2014 - 20 (TWENTY!) Golden Keys!!. Thank you Randy Pitchford and all the backers of Nevermind for making this a reality. This is the biggest Golden Key Giveaway in the history of Borderlands! Also check out the Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Shift Codes Page for 20 Golden Keys for that game too!!

Nov. 4: - Update: Sorry for the delay with the 20-Golden Key Shift code, the only person with authority to issue a Shift Code for such an amount of golden keys is Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox Software. He is currently on his way back from PAX Australia to Gearbox Headquarters in the USA to issue the code. Code will be posted here as soon as it is issued, so check back often it will be worth the wait!

Nov. 3: Stand by for the BIGGEST SHIFT CODE in the history of the game, 20 Golden Keys!!! Codes will be posted on Tuesday, November 4!

You cannot buy, sell or trade Golden Keys; Golden Keys are non-transferrable. You can however, trade the items you receive from using the keys,
or let others loot the chest once opening it - allowing for you to use keys for your friends

Locate The Golden Loot Chest in Pierce Station in the city of Sanctuary (i.e. where you respawn when you enter the game in Sanctuary or use a Fast Travel station). A key is consumed every time you open the Golden Loot Chest, and your Golden Key amount is saved across characters.

Using a Golden Key to open the Golden Chest will give you a purple weapon, a E-Tech Gun (Magenta), or a set of blue rarity relics. Each time you open the chest you will receive one to four items depending on what items are available, similar to how loot chests work in the rest of the game.

Any item that comes from the chest is scaled to the level of the person who opens the chest. The minimum level that the items can be however, is 7. For example, if a level 4 opened the chest the gear would be level 7, while if a level 42 opened the chest it would be level 42.

Timing can be important when opening the chest. At lower levels (e.g. level 5) you can expect to receive powerful gear that will most likely be a big improvement on anything currently owned. But, at a higher level (for instance, the max level) you may already have powerful gear or legendary items that are more powerful than the chest has to offer. Also, because the item's level is scaled to your character's level, it's a good idea to open the chest very soon after you've leveled (and not to wait until you're getting close to leveling) so you can spend as much quality time as possible making good use of that same-level item. If, however, you're opening the chest simply to sell items because you're hard up for cash, timing doesn't matter much.
Occasionally when multiple keys are used in sequence the chest may give one item (usually a rocket launcher) and remain stuck in the opened state. Don't be alarmed. Simply exit to the main menu and Continue to resume. This may occur if you pick up the item before the chest is fully open.

NOTE: It appears that shift codes now (post Borderlands Pre-Sequel release) work for one game or the other. (I personally tried to use the new codes for the Pre-Sequel, after I'd already used them for that game, on Borderlands 2. The message was that I'd already used them, not that they were invalid). Others may want to look into this possibility as well. The game will tell you the code is for another shift enabled game.

Many gamers have reported that a patch that was released December 2012 added 10 golden keys and 60 badass tokens to their account.
The result of this is also said to have reset the amount of golden keys you have to the amount that would be if none had ever been used. I.e. if you had used 2 golden key codes and then opened the chest, after the patch you would have those golden keys back again as if they were never used to open the chest.

For the PS3:
(As of 10/07/2013) While you are in the game, whether in Co-op or just by your self, bring in another one of your saved characters to start the Split Screen mode, and the second character will receive 11 Golden Keys, but just on that particular character. The only way for this to work, as far as I know, is to bring in a second saved character from the same profile you are playing on your PS3, if you happen to have multiple accounts on it. And you can do it as many times as you choose, all you have to do is take the second character out of your game and then put it back in.

IMPORTANT: this exploit does NOT work anymore with the current client (tested 27/12/12). If you try, you get a message that your save data is corrupted. See NOTE below for how to get around this.

On September 18, 2012, an exploit was discovered on the PC version, you have Unlimited Golden keys by editing the WillowDLC.ini file and changing the number after "NumKeys" to 255. After you have used your keys, you can do it again and again to get infinite Golden Keys. The location of the Borderlands 2 ini file is:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Borderlands 2\DLC\POPremierClub\Lic
or
C:\Program Files (x86)\2K Games\Borderlands 2\DLC\POPremierClub\Lic

On September 20, 2012, Gearbox Software patched Borderlands 2 to fix the Gold Key ini file edit Exploit. Editing the ini file to change the amount of keys you have will no longer grant you any additional keys. However, the patch did not remove any keys you have already added using the exploit.

On September 21, 2012, Gearbox Software announced that they will not ban or otherwise punish those who used the cheat.

NOTE: The patch that disabled this exploit is NOT retroactive. If you temporarily use an older version of the game client to perform the .ini exploit on an existing profile, you can then copy the edited profile (with keys) back to your current game client. Be aware, however, that keys from the exploit will overwrite—not stack with—any existing legitimate keys that you have redeemed prior to performing the exploit.

On October 1st, 2012 [confirmed working 25.01.2015] a new exploit was found for PC that lets the player use Golden Keys an infinite number of times. This is done by right clicking on the file Documents\My Games\Borderlands 2\willowgame\savedata\(some number)\ profile.bin and clicking on "Properties" and setting it to "Read Only".

Then launch the game and use the Golden Keys, quit the game and uncheck the "Read Only" box (This is important, remember to uncheck it after you are done). Then go back to the game and you should still have all your keys and the items. This is because the game saves your golden key info in the profile.bin file and when you set it to read only, it cannot save that you used your keys. (If you want to continually farm the chest you must fully quit the game and re-open it to refresh your key count)

For this to work, you need to completely exit out of the game, not just 'log out' from the character.

Please note that if you receive keys while profile.bin is read-only, these keys will NOT be recorded, but SHiFT will register that you have used the code. Also note that if the character save is set to read-only instead of profile.bin your items obtained will not be retained but the use of keys will - you will have completely wasted said keys. Your Badass Ranks and Tokens will also not be recorded, meaning that any challenges you complete whilst using this exploit will be pointless. Be careful.

In short:

Set profile.bin to Read-Only. Click Apply.

Enter game, use your keys. Completely exit game when done.

Re-enter and use keys as many times as you want, completely exiting the game after each time.

When completely finished, make sure to exit, then uncheck the Read-Only box and hit Apply.

(You don't have to uncheck the Read Only box after each individual expenditure of keys, only when you are completely done and wish to play the game.)

IMPORTANT: Character swapping and the character shared STASH are tied to this file as well. Thus:

When profile.bin is locked, if you quit to desktop after manipulating the stash, it will revert to its original content, deleting whatever you placed in it and duplicating anything you've already removed.

All head and skin unlocks applied while profile.bin is locked, will be lost when quitting to desktop.

As mentioned above, Badass Ranks and Tokens gained while profile.bin is locked will not be retained, but challenge tiers are still advanced (for example 'Purple Reign' - loot or purchase purple items)

If you swap characters while the file is locked the game will switch back to your original character when you restart it.

If the above instructions do not work for you, do the following:

Launch the game and get to the character screen.

Change the file to read-only.

Use your keys.

Exit the game.

Set the file back to non read-only.

BL2 Bin Locker

An AutoHotKey script titled BL2 Bin Locker has been released which automates the process of toggling the read only flag on the profile.bin file, and also implements a small safety mechanism as well. (It removes the read-only flag when simply closing the utility - in case you forget.) Written by RedStapler/evilOlive in AutoHotKey. There's a link to a compiled EXE in the OP on the AHK Forums, as well as the source code, here.

Unlimited Golden Keys (PS3)

Confirmed as of February 1, 2014 you can exploit the Golden Chest in Sanctuary. But first things first, get some golden keys (About 15 is perfect). Once you've gotten a decent amount of keys, go to Sanctuary and connect a second controller. Press the START button, let the second player join, and then...REALLY IMPORTANT! You sign into the same profile, but as a different character. When the second character spawns, they'll have 10 keys. Approach the box and get to spending. Either drop the loot for the first character to keep, or just SAVE and QUIT on the second character. Then, after the second character has left, use your second controller to log back in, select a character, and VOILÀ! 10 more golden keys at your disposal. Feel free to do it as much as you'd like.

NOTE* As of the May 19 cross-saving update, this cheat no longer works. Any character brought into the game will spawn with no golden keys.

Note: For new characters below level 7(using the second controller), the maximum level of the items dropped is 7.
For other cheats, see: Borderlands 2: Cheats

During the month of October 2012, Gearbox Software and Randy Pitchford (President of Gearbox Software) wanted to test their SHiFT Code distribution and redemption system, and gave away lots of codes, often unannounced, on their Facebook and Twitter channels.

On the weekend of Friday, October 26th 2012 and Saturday October 27th 2012, Gearbox gave out a total of 10 sets of codes through the Gearbox Facebook and Twitter accounts, plus two bonus codes at the end of the weekend.

On the weekend of Friday, November 30th 2012 and Saturday December 1st 2012, Gearbox gave out a total of 10 sets of codes through the Gearbox Facebook and Twitter accounts.

(expired On February 14th 2013, and again February 14th 2014, Gearbox released a SHiFT code that unlocked special Valentines Day skins Customizations for each character except Krieg. This promotion was known as 'Loverpalooza' and also gave the first character played a Heart Breaker of the same level.

A separate code for Krieg's Valentines Day skin was released on February 25th, 2014.

Some users are replacing keys with word 'Expired'. Please do not follow this practice. You are not contributing and you are just deleting keys. Make sure you have read the general guide at the bottom before you edit ANYTHING.

Shift codes may eventually expire. When a code expires, DO NOT REMOVE ANY CODES. Only mark that the codes have "Expired" in the "Expected Expiration" section.

DO NOT ADD COMMENTS INTO THE SOURCE CELL!

There is a limit of 255 keys per account. ENSURE YOU WILL NOT EXCEED THIS before redeeming a code.

If you find new golden key codes anywhere, please edit the section below to share. At times, this page may be protected to prevent editing. If this happens and you have new SHiFT Codes to add, or if you are otherwise unsure of how to edit this page, please post the new codes to the Talk Page

Some codes are limited quantity, or expire after a few hours. You can bookmark and check often for new codes, so that you don't miss any.

On PC and Mac, you can copy and paste the codes. Be sure that you didn't copy a space or new-line character at the beginning or end of the code. If you copy with a space at the end it won't work. Please don't use spaces before and after the code when adding them to the table below.

For the class mod SHiFT codes, the items will appear in the backpack of, and be the same level as, the first character loaded after code redemption. If the character is above Level 51, ensure you are in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode to receive the item of the appropriate level.